The present invention relates to a technology for identifying a person using a living body, and more particularly to a technology for identifying a person using a finger vein pattern.
Today, the typical personal identification technology is fingerprint identification. However, the problem is that other person's fingerprint is easily obtained, for example, a criminal's fingerprint is taken in the scene of a crime, and therefore a fingerprint may be forged. This problem leads to the development of personal identification technologies other than fingerprint identification. For example, JP-A-7-21373, laid-open Jan. 24, 1995, discloses a personal identification technology thorough the use of a finger blood vessel pattern, and JP-A-10-295674, laid-open Nov. 10, 1998, discloses a personal identification technology through the use of a vein pattern on the back of a hand. These technologies shine a light on a finger or on the back of a hand, capture the reflected light or transmitted light, extract the blood vessel pattern from the captured image, and compare the captured blood vessel pattern with the previously-registered blood vessel pattern to identify a person.